Are you supposed to eject an external hardrive before shutting down?

[Absolute-Zero]

I have an external hardrive that mounts automatically when I turn on my mac, but before shutting down I don't eject it so its still on the desktop. Is that safe? I tried googleing it but I cant get a solid answer. Also can the same be said about generic mp3 players? Thanks in advance.

 

[Nermal]

All drives are automatically unmounted as part of the shutdown process.

 

[Fishrrman]

I'd just like to second Nermal's reply above.

As a part of the shutdown process, whatever you happen to have "mounted" on the desktop automatically gets ejected before shutdown.

Once the Mac has gone dark and the power is off, you can then physically disconnect what you had connected.

 

[SHADO]

I always eject anything before I shut down, but that's just personal preference.

 

[iPhoneCollector]

There's no need to do that if you computer is turned off there's obviosly no data trafic